Painting the Floors

Last year I went hear Brian Coleman talk about his book, Farrow & Ball: The Art of Color at the Boston Design Center. What stood out to me was the time he and the rep at the Farrow & Ball showroom took to speak about the application of the F&B paints on floors. While I like some painted floors, they can sometimes be too "country" for me with the stencils and diamonds. I love the old-school splatter technique which is widely used at beach houses to cover up sand and dirt. Ever since this talk I have paid much closer attention to painted floors when I come across them in magazines and in person. I have come to the conclusion that I definitely want to paint the entry hall floor of our next home. I have seen some beautifully done floors with dark-on-dark stained patterns - very subtle and classic- but I am drawn to more playful bold geometrics in fun colors. This home in Atlanta looks so fun - it is very small but the owner made a bold move to paint her entry hall floor with this pattern. Later, Cottage Living used the same pattern and tweaked the colors in an old enclosed porch which was converted to a home office...I would love to have a lively, one-of-a-kind entry to my house. Also, painting the floors is a way to save cost if the floors are in less than ideal condition. I can also do this myself instead of paying Karl, my *amazing* but pricey painter.

I just found a great company online called Modello Designs that creates custom stencils which come with an adhesive backing so it easy to paint a pattern on a painted floor. I am having trouble uploading many of the very cool patterns (like variations of greek key borders and herringbone patterns) but here are two patterns which I could upload. These two feature a repeating motif like a medallion and the package includes enough patterns to cover an 8x8 area. There are so many cool geometrics on this page ...check it out.

Here is a not-so-great pic of one of my favorite patterns on the site - a variation of a China Seas pattern that I love.pictures via housebeautiful.com, myhomeideas.com & modellodesigns.com